Linux – fast Linux directory tree removal

filesystemslinux

rm -rf mydir

is painfully slow for a directory tree with 100000 files (in sub-directories) on a reiserfs file system.

Any ideas for faster removal of directory trees (even risking rare corruption) ?

Best Answer

The only solution I can think of is to have all your files on a separate files system. The file system can live on disk partition or in a file.

Instead of deleting the files you could wipe out the partition or delete the file.

I can sympathize with you because I have project with > 200 000 files on NTFS and deleting the tree is really a pain. If I could, I would

use another file system (reiserfs, in your case, is pretty good with lots of files anyway IIRC)
avoid having so many files (e.g. use a database)

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Linux – Copy all files from a directory tree into one directory

Try this in PowerShell:

dir f:\images -recurse -filt *.jpg | copy -dest C:\Users\Me\Pictures\Phone

Note: - This will overwrite files with the same name already in the destination even if resulting from this copy - Add a -verbose to the copy to see what is being copied.

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Linux – Copy all files from a directory tree into one directory

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